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I’ve only just discovered that the original C&C has been receiving community patches to keep it not only playable, but enhanced too! Which is an amazing accomplishment, really it is. Special thanks to all the dedicated fans and talented coders & programmers who have kept the game alive so long.

I've always loved this game and there’s not a single C&C successor that ever captured what the original had. While the sequels improved and innovated on the formula, and the graphics, the original C&C will always be a one of a kind game as far as I’m concerned.

Now with all these updates and hi-res patches I’m once again able to command the GDI and NOD and for that I’m ever so grateful.

However with that said. I’m a bit surprised that the customization of this game is not only lacking, but nearly gone as well. Beyond that of Tibedit and the UGE program the moding of game-play mechanics has gone backwards. Literally.

I look back on the mid 90’s to when I first encountered this game. I got it on a demo disc included with a pc game magazine, and I was hooked immediately. GDI mission 10. Six mammoth tanks, eight grenadiers and one MCV. I played that mission for months, over and over. I’d sometimes lock the enemy AI in the south west tiberium field while it was harvesting. Leave my pc on and go about with other things for a few hours, the AI would go broke and idle. When I returned to release the harvester, the AI would attack me gloriously for like 10 solid minutes catching up on all the timers that past by. It was awesome.

Once the mission lost all of its replay value to me. I scoured the net for anything I could on the game. Despite being limited to 56k I searched and searched. From cheats, to addons, you name it I looked. What I finally discovered was pure gold. It was an ini file with every thing in the game detailed in a neat list. I dropped it in the folder where the game was installed and It allowed me to edit everything about the game. From weapons, their ranges, to the what weapons units used, to the graphics the weapons used. I made my mammoths have artillery shells with a range of 15. Gave them rapid fire missiles. Medium tanks had ballistic artillery shells to, with a range of 10 and light tanks had that of 8. I used artillery for the randomness of each shot, and the wonderful smudges they left behind. I gave minigunners guns that could reach 5 cells away with a single edit on one line of text.

I’ve searched high and low for weeks now, for information, or an explanation as to why we could over-ride the games rules with an INI file on the demo, but not that of the standalone free release, or the TFD edition. I found nothing, except nah-sayers who say it wasn't possible. As though my memories are lies.

Editing and modifying the C&C demo was what initially attracted me into the pc game world. Where I have been for 20 years now. The ability to alter and change the game to one that suited me, it provided near infinite replay value and that was golden.

In my searching for why this game no longer allows rule’s editing. Besides the nay-sayers, I’ve also encountered dozens of others who have stated exactly the same thing I have. They distinctly remember using an ini file on the demo, and it allowed them to edit their game to anything they desired. (Well anything included in the demo anyways)

So for you dedicate talented people working on this game. Perhaps the demo is the answer as to how and why the ini worked once upon a time. Perhaps not.

One thing I know for certain, there are many people out there who remember once upon a time edited the living hell out of demo, to get everything they could from 3 simple missions, and they all did it with one ini file. I am one of those people.

-edit: Spelling.-edit2: I'm going find the demo somewhere on here, and see if I can't replicate what I know can be done. I've found several demo's so far, but none are disc's that I recognize.-edit3: Been a little over two weeks now and after extensive testing. I can't find a demo that allows it. I downloaded 6 versions of the C&C demo from various magazine ISO files on the archives site, all distinctly different from one another. v1.A1, 1.A2, 1.B1.. etc. While I was able to fire them all up in either xp, or Dosbox 0.7, no matter what I did I couldn't enable the edits. I can't remember the command line paremeters or where to put the ini file and what to name it.

Whatever the case is, I refuse to conced that my memories are faulty. It was afterall modding the C&C demo that initiatlly got me into pc games. Unfortunetely too much time has transpired and I can't remember the process behind it. Other than two things, the file was an Ini, and the game was launched with a command line paremeter to read it.

Its not a total loss though. In searching for answers to this dilema, I discoverd Red Dawn 2014, which is a fantastic alternative.

My only hope for the original now, is that someday Nyerguds finishes his ini project.

Cheers.

Edited January 18, 2015 by vastenemy

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What I finally discovered was pure gold. It was an ini file with every thing in the game detailed in a neat list. I dropped it in the folder where the game was installed and It allowed me to edit everything about the game. From weapons, their ranges, to the what weapons units used, to the graphics the weapons used. I made my mammoths have artillery shells with a range of 15. Gave them rapid fire missiles. Medium tanks had ballistic artillery shells to, with a range of 10 and light tanks had that of 8. I used artillery for the randomness of each shot, and the wonderful smudges they left behind. I gave minigunners guns that could reach 5 cells away with a single edit on one line of text.

I’ve searched high and low for weeks now, for information, or an explanation as to why we could over-ride the games rules with an INI file on the demo, but not that of the standalone free release, or the TFD edition. I found nothing, except nah-sayers who say it wasn't possible. As though my memories are lies.

I'm very sorry, but the only explanation here is that you must be misremembering things. The ini modding concept exists, but not in Command & Conquer 1; it was introduced in Red Alert 1. So, you must simply be thinking of the wrong game.

I've delved into the binary bowels of this game; there is nothing in there to read game stats. The only thing currently in there, the ini-based music reading, was added in my patch. Though traces were found of a rudimentary ini-based units and buildings properties reading system in Dune II, no version or demo of C&C1 ever had anything like it.